Everything You Need to Know to Get Started With Your New Sourdough Hobby
Sourdough requires minimal attention; A hobby that could only require a maximum of 10 minutes a week. TikTok can help with many informative and inspirational videos about sourdough, what can you create?
Sourdough bread and starter is about the process. You have to feed it, and it could be needy and have to be fed everyday, or chilled (literally in the fridge) and accidentally forgotten about for 3 weeks. Sourdough is a responsibility, like a pet you have to keep alive.
The #sourdoughbread has 1.3 billion views on tiktok. There have been comments on videos asking, “Would it be easier to just buy the bread already made?” To which the content creator of that video responded “Yes but it’s more cost effective and less additives when you make it.”
Sourdough has taken over TikTok. You can find all the videos you could possibly need on there to educate yourself.
Sourdough Starter
Starter involves two main ingredients, flour and water. The building blocks to the life form of sourdough. Wild yeast and good bacteria are the two elements of starter that allow bread to be naturally leavened. The yeast and bacteria feed off of the carbohydrates in the flour when hydrated. When feeding starter flour and water the microbes eat and poop out lactic and acetic acid forming bubbles which is why starters grow in size.
There are sourdough starters that have been active for hundreds of years and you can buy them online or you can make a starter yourself!
To make a starter simply mix water and flour together. There is debate about which flour is best to use, wheat or unbleached all-purpose flour will do just fine.
Steps to create a starter from scratch:
Step one — Mix together 40 grams of flour, 40 grams of water and a tiny bit of honey in a jar, cover loosely.
Wait 12 hours
Step two — Add 40 grams of flour, 40 grams of water and a tiny bit of honey to the jar, mix and cover loosely.
Wait 12 hours
Step three — Mix around what is in the jar.
Wait 12 hours
Step four — Discard two-thirds of your mixture and add 40 grams of flour and 40 grams of water.
Wait 12 hours
Step five — Continue to discard two-thirds of the mixture and feed it 40 grams of flour and 40 grams of water every 12 hours.
You want your starter to be so strong that it doubles in size, if not more! Building up strength could take a few days, so give it time, just continue to discard and feed.
Once you build up your starters strength, it is ready to bake with.
Sourdough Bread
Start the process at least a day before you want to bake the bread. You will have to let the bread sit for a bit to rise.
First : Feed your starter.
Sourdough starter takes anywhere from 6–12 hours after feeding until it’s ready to use. Put the starter jar in a colder or warmer environment to influence the speed at which your starter matures. Cold to slow it down, warm to speed it up. Just make sure it’s not so warm that it cooks your starter. Tip, put your starter in the oven with the light on, do not turn on the oven! Just leave the light on for an hour or so to create a warm environment and then turn off the light.
So, feed your starter with a time in mind for when you want to start the bread making process.
Second : Create the bread
Making the dough can take the majority of the day. It is not a very hands-on process but you will have to come back to it every now and then. You can expedite the process and follow a recipe that could take only a few hours, or you could spend all day curating the perfect loaf. Whatever will make your tastebuds happy!
Third : Bake
Once you have made your dough and it is in the fridge rising you are almost at the end! When your ready to bake allow your oven to pre-heat and also pre-heat a dutch oven for at least a half hour before baking. A dutch oven is best to create a nice crust on the final loaf. When you take the loaf out of the oven place it on a cooling rack for at least an hour! This is important for the crust, as it cools the air inside the loaf will escape which makes the crust soft, allowing it to cool will help the crust harden back up.
